


It's the Same as in the Pool

by mousapelli



Category: Free!
Genre: Domestic Fluff, M/M, Sleepovers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-04
Updated: 2019-05-04
Packaged: 2020-02-18 15:15:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 697
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18702175
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mousapelli/pseuds/mousapelli
Summary: Haru's idea of being a polite host are not normal, in Rin's opinion.





	It's the Same as in the Pool

**Author's Note:**

> Written for 2018 SportsFest, Bonus Round 4 (screencaps). Prompt was "Two guys in swimming trunks sitting awkwardly in a jacuzzi tub together."

"Take a bath with me," Haru says, and Rin nearly drops his overnight bag on his foot.

"What?" he demands. Haru's already heading towards the stairs, and Rin's mostly yelling at his back. When he doesn't answer, Rin ends up trailing him the whole way up to his room. "Haru! What does that even mean, take a bath with you?"

"It means what I said," Haru shrugs, unbuttoning his school uniform shirt and hanging it over the back of his chair. "It's too hot. I'm sweaty from commuting. I usually sit in the bath for a while, but it's rude to ignore you when you came the whole way here."

"It's rude," Rin echoes. Haru nods. He strips off his pants and Rin feels a bolt of warm embarrassment even though he knows Haru's got his jammers on underneath. "But asking another guy to hang out in the bathtub with you is fine?"

"I want to talk to you. You have your suit." Haru shrugs, turning to go. "It's the same as in the pool."

"The pool is BIGGER," Rin hollers after him, but all he gets in reply is Haru telling him that he's starting the water heater and to hurry up. Rin looks at the floor, looks at the ceiling, then drops his bag on the floor and starts stripping, cursing under his breath the entire time.

Five minutes later they're sitting in Haru's bathtub, their knees almost touching, not talking. The house is silent around them, so silent that Rin can hear their breathing and the tiny ripples of the water against their skin. Rin wonder how Haru stands all this silence, all the time.

"This is incredibly awkward," Rin announces. "This is not a thing that normal friends do."

"You shower with your teammates totally naked, I don't see how this is weirder at all," Haru says, expression unmoved. He slides down just a bit more to get more of himself under the water; now their knees are touching. "You aren't sweating now, right?"

"No, but—"

"The ground floor doesn't have any air-conditioning and the one in my room broke last week and I don't know who to call about it, so the only place with air-conditioning is my parents' room and I don't want to hang out with you there." Haru sinks down even further, or maybe it just looks that way when he hunches his shoulders. "Ok?"

"Yeah, man, don't worry about it," Rin reassures, surprised to hear Haru mention his parents at all. Silence stretches out between them. "It'll cool off when the sun's down."

"Yeah." Haru's shoulders loosen. "Yeah."

Rin starts talking about his team when he can't take the quiet any more, about his classes, about his roommate. He feels like he should shut up about himself at some point, but Haru never looks bored or uninterested, only blinks and asks the very occasional question. When they're both stupidly pruney Rin drags Haru out of the tub and down to the tiny combini for food. It is cooler now, the salt breeze nice across Rin's cheeks and bare shoulders.

"Next time we'll go shopping on the way home," Rin says. "Before the grocery store closes."

"For what?" Haru asks, as if Rin had just suggested a trip to the hardware store.

"Food, idiot. I can cook things." Rin scowls at Haru's slow blink. "I can."

Haru stares down at the salt-roe onigiri he's been nibbling on. "Next time?"

"Yeah?" Rin raises an eyebrow. "Why not?"

"My house isn't exactly entertaining," Haru says. "I don't really get why you came the whole way out here."

"Don't be dumb, you're here," Rin says briskly. "I crossed a whole stupid ocean to swim with you again, so getting worked up about the trip from Samezuka to here would be stupid."

"Oh," Haru says, very quietly, and Rin only sees the flicker of a smile because he's watching for it.

Rin thinks about adding that if Haru is lonely or wants skinship, he doesn't have to ask for weird bathtub time, but decides that too many serious discussions at once never works out well for either of them. There's always next visit.


End file.
